Dante's Inferno

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The timeless classic of a journey through the horrors of hell The action adventure blockbuster that's rocking the video game world All hell is breaking loose. Electronic Arts' thrilling video game Dante's Inferno has exploded on the scene and this book provides unique insight into its creation. Go back to the source with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's celebrated translation of Dante's epic poem. Presented here in its entirety, the poem provides the original foundation and inspiration for the game. Then learn the game's creators turned the Dante's notorious Nine Circles of Hell into the hottest game around. In sixteen pages of stunning art, you'll discover how the monsters and characters-from King Minos and Cerberus to Lucifer himself-evolved from their classic images to the darkest creatures in damnation, and witness how the environments fashioned by the game's creators bring the tortured netherworld of absolute evil to hideous life. In addition, Executive Producer Jonathan Knight shares intriguing details about the process of adapting Dante's masterpiece into this epic videogame in a fascinating introduction written exclusively for this book. Welcome to Hell-let the nightmares begin.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet, educator, and linguist, wrote many long narrative poems, including The Song of Hiawatha, Evangeline, and The Courtship of Miles Standish.

Matthew Pearl is the author of the novel The Dante Club, published by Random House, and is a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School. In 1998 he won the prestigious Dante Prize from the Dante Society of America for his scholarly work. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Lino Pertile is a professor of Romance languages and literature at Harvard University. He specializes in Dante and the Latin Middle Ages.

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita

mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,

che la diritta via era smarrita.

Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura 4

esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte

che nel pensier rinova la paura!

Tant' è amara che poco è più morte; 7

ma per trattar del ben ch'i' vi trovai,

dirò de l'altre cose ch'i' v'ho scorte.

Io non so ben ridir com' i' v'intrai, 10

tant' era pien di sonno a quel punto

che la verace via abbandonai.

Ma poi ch'i' fui al piè d'un colle giunto, 13

là dove terminava quella valle

che m'avea di paura il cor compunto,

guardai in alto e vidi le sue spalle 16

vestite già de' raggi del pianeta

che mena dritto altrui per ogne calle.

Allor fu la paura un poco queta, 19

che nel lago del cor m'era durata

la notte ch'i' passai con tanta pieta.

E come quei che con lena affannata, 22

uscito fuor del pelago a la riva,

si volge a l'acqua perigliosa e guata,

Canto One

Lost in a dark wood and threatened by three beasts, Dante is rescued by Virgil, who proposes a journey to the other world.

Midway upon the journey of our life

I found myself in a dark wilderness,

for I had wandered from the straight and true.

How hard a thing it is to tell about, 4

that wilderness so savage, dense, and harsh,

even to think of it renews my fear!

It is so bitter, death is hardly more- 7

but to reveal the good that came to me,

I shall relate the other things I saw.

How I had entered, I can't bring to mind, 10

I was so full of sleep just at that point

when I first left the way of truth behind.

But when I reached the foot of a high hill, 13

right where the valley opened to its end-

the valley that had pierced my heart with fear-

I raised my eyes and saw its shoulders robed 16

with the rays of that wandering light of Heaven°

that leads all men aright on every road.

That quieted a bit the dread that stirred 19

trembling within the waters of my heart

all through that night of misery I endured.

And as a man with labored breathing drags 22

his legs out of the water and, ashore,

fixes his eyes upon the dangerous sea,

° that wandering light of Heaven: Italian pianeta, "planet." It is the sun, considered a planet, or wandering light, revolving about the earth.

così l'animo mio, ch'ancor fuggiva, 25

si volse a retro a rimirar lo passo

che non lasciò già mai persona viva.

Poi ch'èi posato un poco il corpo lasso, 28

ripresi via per la piaggia diserta,

sì che 'l piè fermo sempre era 'l più basso.

Ed ecco, quasi al cominciar de l'erta, 31

una lonza leggera e presta molto,

che di pel macolato era coverta;

e non mi si partia dinanzi al volto, 34

anzi 'mpediva tanto il mio cammino,

ch'i' fui per ritornar più volte vòlto.

Temp' era dal principio del mattino, 37

e 'l sol montava 'n sù con quelle stelle

ch'eran con lui quando l'amor divino

mosse di prima quelle cose belle; 40

sì ch'a bene sperar m'era cagione

di quella fiera a la g

Excerpted from Dante's Inferno by Dante Alighieri All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.